Shares are jumping this afternoon amid a big, broad market rally as fears over the looming fiscal cliff have subsided, at least temporarily.

Shares recently rose 6% to $559, a monster move for the biggest U.S. company by stock-market value. Apple’s big weightings in the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Comp are also giving a lift to those indexes, which are up sharply and outperforming the blue-chip and Apple-less Dow Jones Industrial Average.

If Apple’s gains hold through the close, the stock will register its third biggest one-day gain of the year, according to WSJ Market Data Group.

The Apple surge piles on to Friday’s big mid-day reversal. At Friday’s intraday low, the stock touched $505.75. Since then, the stock has climbed more than 10%.

“The selloff in Apple’s stock over the past eight weeks has gotten to the point of being ‘insanely insane,’” says Brian White, an analyst at Topeka Capital Markets. Apple shares had fallen about 25% in less than two months prior to Monday’s trading session.

Since Apple shares hit record highs above $700 in September, the stock quickly tumbled into bear-market territory, considered a decline of more than 20% from a recent high. The slide has coincided with two big product launches — the iPhone 5 and the iPad Mini — over the last few months.

Demand that fell short of expectations for the new iPhone combined with worries about the iPad Mini pricing, recent management changes and growing competition from the likes of Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp. have weighed on the shares.

And, of course, concerns surrounding the fiscal cliff have also taken a bite out of Apple shares. Worries over the treatment of dividends and capital gains and what happens with these tax rates could have implications on Apple, which instituted a dividend earlier this year.

But now, all those worries seem to be waning. In this week’s cover story, Barron’s touted how the stock could hit $800. From the many options Apple has for rewarding shareholders through dividends and buybacks, to its cheap valuation, the stock looks attractive even when the company’s rabid growth rate starts to slow, Barron’s says.

“Those investors that have missed Apple or have been under-weight the stock, now have another opportunity to buy Apple before sentiment takes a turn for the positive during what has historically been the strongest quarter of the year for the stock,” White says.

WSJ Market Data Group

Apple’s top 10 biggest one-day gains this year

To MarketBeaters, is the worst for Apple shares over? Drop your thoughts in the comments section below!

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Comments (5 of 18)

This sentence "Demand that fell short of expectations for the new iPhone combined with worries about the iPad Mini pricing," is not true at all. Demand was and is through the roof for the new iPhone, the problem was Apple could not make enough of them to satisfy demand, which Apple has corrected recently by increasing supply.

1:53 pm November 23, 2012

Apple haters wrote :

Do you know why Apple has so many haters?
It's because all they're interested in is marketing devices to consumers which don't work with any other devices except for Apple ones. Screw them. They will learn the hard way when consumers wake up that the world is more than just Apple. Apple need to lift their game and start playing well with others.

9:45 pm November 19, 2012

C.G wrote :

It is interesting to see how many Experts in technology, and how many Experts in the stock market have been popping up for the lasts few weeks, that have an Expert opinion on why the stock does this or that.

Most of these people, I gather, have never invested in the stock market, and have no idea why the stock has dropped into bearish territory. Most of these other people, have never held an Apple product in their hands, but are quick to judge the company's creativity.

In the humble opinion of someone that has owned most of Apple's products for the last 8 years, but who is ready to drop any of these products should anything better come along (which is exactly what I did when Windows started losing the edge, and my Sony Ericsson phone started looking outdated), I must say that I find no reason yet to switch from Apple to anything else, simply because the User Experience is unmatched by any other ecosystem.

You can call me a fanboy if you like. But, having IT experience, I periodically install new Operating Systems to test them. Also, I like to hold other smart phones and tablets in my hands and play with them. I must admit that Android looks very nice, those Amoled screens are very colourful, and the Eye Candy is quite impressive. Nevertheless, these products are still far behind in the user experience department.

One thing that I have realised using every Apple product is that, regardless of the product I use, I tend to forget that I am dealing with technology. Essentially, the operating system, the applications in general, and the physical shape of the "appliances" have become so natural to me that I completely forget that I am holding what the product actually is, i.e. a computer. In this sense, the User Experience is unmatched by any other Ecosystem.

There will be no other Steve Jobs ever. But as technology evolves, do we really need another Steve Jobs? Isn't there anyone around that can match, or even improve on his ideas in this whole world? Never forget that whichever ideas, or philosophies, or world views that were accepted as norms in the past, had been outdated and replaced. It's an eternal law.

As far as I'm concerned, I am still waiting for that new idea, that new world view that will replace the technology I use on a daily basis. Please, bring it on! I'll be the first one to adopt it... But, for now, I see no one defining a new paradigm. So, I will stick to what does the job best, so far. That is, my OSX machine and my iOS devices.

8:39 pm November 19, 2012

Polimon wrote :

I find it amusing that unimaginative loud mouths like Roger actually believe that Apple is suffering from lack of leadership, simply because they can't imagine where Apple is headed. Hey Roger, if you really think it's all downhill from here, I dare you to short AAPL now. Also, please explain how Mr. Cook and his management team had anything whatsoever to do with the recent dip in the stock price. Apple marches to nobody's tune but their own.

6:57 pm November 19, 2012

John Apple wrote :

Amused by the guess that Apple stock jumped due to the temporary disapperance of the fiscal cliff; so when the cliff appears;then what? Daytraders or whatever doing the old pump and dump based on the Euro mess, tax policies or housing starts/failures deserve a haircut.

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